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Case ECS-04/11: North Macedonia / electricity

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summary of the case

status:

compiled

registered:

ex officio 2011

The Secretariat, acting under Article 90 of the Treaty, notes that North Macedonia has not yet adopted a common coordinated congestion management method and procedure for the allocation of capacity to the market. The obligation to do so is a decision by the Ministerial Council establishing the so-called “8th region”. The decision also incorporates the Congestion Management Guidelines on the management and allocation of available transfer capacity of interconnections between national systems annexed to the Regulation 1228/2003. The obligation on Contracting Parties to apply a common coordinated congestion management method and procedure for the allocation of capacity to the market was due as from 31 December 2009.

Over the past years, the Energy Community’s institutions’ as well as the transmission system operators (TSOs) in the region have provided support to establish a South Eastern Europe Coordinated Auction Office (CAO) as one possible approach to common coordinated congestion management method and procedure for the allocation of capacity. However, neither the CAO nor any other common coordinated congestion management method and procedure for the allocation of capacity to the market have so far been implemented. Instead, capacity allocation and congestion management in the region are predominantly performed bilaterally between the neighboring TSO which in most cases apply different allocation methods on each side of the border

Case ECS 04/11 information requests

procedural history

On 20 Jan 2011, the Energy Community Secretariat sent Opening Letters to North Macedonia, as well as to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia in accordance with Article 12 of the Rules of Procedure for Dispute Settlement. The Secretariat, acting under Article 90 of the Treaty, notes that these six Contracting Parties have not yet adopted a common coordinated congestion management method and procedure for the allocation of capacity to the market.

Procedure

With the present Opening Letters, the Secretariat initiated preliminary procedures, the purpose of which is giving the aforementioned Contracting Parties the possibility to react to the allegation of non-compliance with Energy Community law, and enabling the Secretariat to establish the full factual and legal background of the case. The Contracting Parties have been given until 21 March 2011 to comply of their own accord with the requirements of the Treaty, or to justify their position. According to Articles 6 and 16 of the Rules of Procedure for Dispute Settlement, interested parties may be granted access to the case file and may submit written observations on the present case to the Secretariat within one month from today.

Steps taken

On 4 September 2014, the Energy Community Secretariat submitted a Reasoned Opinion in Case ECS-4/11 against North Macedonia, for its failure to comply with obligations under the Energy Community Treaty to adopt electricity market congestion management guidelines. While all Energy Community Contracting Parties in the “8th Region” have taken steps forward, North Macedonia is the only country that has failed to make any tangible progress. The application of congestion management guidelines and in particular the coordination with neighbouring transmission system operators in capacity calculation and allocation is key to the proper development of a competitive electricity market in the Energy Community.

Procedure

In the Reasoned Opinion, North Macedonia is requested to rectify the identified issues of non-compliance within a time limit of two months. If North Macedonia fails to act, the Secretariat may submit the case to the Ministerial Council.

According to the Rules of Procedure for Dispute Settlement, parties with a legitimate interest in the case are granted access to the case file.

Following the successful participation of the electricity transmission system operator of North Macedonia, MEPSO, in auctioning of 2017 yearly, monthly and daily electricity cross-border capacities by the Coordinated Auction Office South East Europe (SEE CAO) and based on common auction rules approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2016, North Macedonia formally rectified the breach identified in case ECS-4/11. Therefore, the Secretariat decided to discontinue the case ECS-4/11. Results of successful yearly, monthly and daily capacity allocation are available at the SEE CAO website.

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